Rings of Ice

by Piers Anthony and Vincent diFate - cover

Book Overview

June 1973 Avon Books 4th printing mass market paperback as shown. Great covers, tight spine, no spine creases, clear, crisp pages, smokefree, light edge wear from storage. Fiction This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380000369
• ISBN13: 9780380000364
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Rainy Day Read

Rings of Ice / 0-380-00036-9 I'm a moderate Piers Anthony fan, although goodness knows he has his flaws from time to time. I do enjoy his stand-alone science fiction, though, and "Rings of Ice" definitely delivers a punch. Though it is a valid criticism of the book that several of the characters are somewhat shallow and one-dimensional, I think it is important to note that the individual characters here are not meant to be the main focus of the story. When the world begins to disastrously flood in a standard "science gone wrong" scenario, these dysfunctional and one-dimensional people must come together as a group, a family, in order to truly survive. In this light, the characters' dysfunctionality enhances the story because a new view of "survival of the fittest" is presented here - our characters survive not because they individually are "fit", but because they are "fit" as a group, a combined whole, and the strengths of each character outweigh the weaknesses of the others. Each main character has a potentially fatal weakness, but it is the group as a whole that works to overcome those weaknesses. This in of itself is a fascinating departure from standard fare survival fiction, where He-Men heroes and She-Ra heroines survive because they are just such ruggedly awesome Galt-clones. I highly recommend this book for a rainy day read. Note, though, that this book is probably not for small children - "Rings of Ice" includes, among other things, cannibalism 'a la Donner party' and a wonderful transvestite character whose inclusion may raise questions from young readers.

A Forgotten Anthony Classic

It's hard to believe these days, but Piers Anthony used to write his books one at a time, or in trilogies of no more than three volumes. In fact, he was considered one of the best of Science Fiction's "New Wave" of writers of the late 60s and early 70s Rings of Ice, while not as "edgy" as much of the literature of the New Wave, is a fine example of the form -- thoughtful, character-driven, often intensely moving. The characters are deftly and realistically drawn, the action gripping but plausible. With everything else Anthony has ever written, edited or used to prop up a rickety table filling the shelves at all the major bookstore chains, it's astonishing that Rings of Ice has remained out of print for so long. Seek it out.

More Classic Anthony Science Fiction!

If you've figured out that Anthony's older science fiction is some of the best ever written, then by all means find this book, as it's right up there in quality with Macroscope. It's a disaster, end-of-the-world story that's quietly moving and darn good.